Overview:
Full Tilt Poker is the second largest online poker site in the world. Aside from industry leader Pokerstars, there is no other site with comparable activity to Full Tilt. The site markets itself as the place you can "play with the pros", and their lineup of signed "pros" ranges from Phil Ivey to people you couldn't pick out in a crowd if your life depended upon it. Curiously, many of Full Tilt's pros are overall losers on the site! Full Tilt has deep pockets and an aggressive marketing campaign, so it should continue to thrive for years to come, barring a major change to US law involving online poker's legality.
Activity Level - Grade: A-
Full Tilt is large and active. Games run around the clock, and the site frequently has more than 100,000 players logged into the software. Pokerstars is actually three times as active as Full Tilt, but none of the other competitors even come close.
Game Variety - Grade: A
Full Tilt is the primary innovator in online game variety. They were the first US-facing site to feature the "nosebleed" limits, as well as being the first to offer 10-Game cash tables and their proprietary "Rush Poker" tables. The fact that Full Tilt is primarily owned by longtime poker players, rather than traditional businessmen, will probably keep them ahead of the curve in the game variety category.
Softness of Games - Grade: C-
This is arguably Full Tilt's biggest flaw -- the games are damn hard to beat. This is especially true at the middle and upper limit games. The lower and micro limits are still relatively beatable, but are still tougher than most other sites. The same situation exists for their tournaments. Adding to the toughness of the game selection is their "heads-up" table situation. Full Tilt provides tables where only two people can play, which leads many professional grinders to take daily residence at those tables by themselves, and only play against fish. Often there are as many as 20 people sitting at heads up tables at the same game/limits, all competing for the elusive fish who will sit with them! Why does this matter? Because this also takes the fish away from the ring games, and those often don't go at the middle and higher limits.
Software - Grade: A-
Full Tilt has very good software. It never crashes, runs efficiently, isn't a "CPU hog", and has a pretty good user interface. I like Pokerstars' software better, but Full Tilt is a close second. It would be nice if they would list the city of players you're up against, rather than just their country. Otherwise, it makes it too easy for people to multi-account. For example, if a regular player from Seattle disappears and is suddenly replaced by a new regular from Federal Way (which is close to Seattle), that gives you a lot more information than both being simply listed as from "United States".
Ease of Deposit - Grade: B+
On the plus side, Full Tilt spends a lot of time, money, and effort in making deposits possible -- something increasingly tough in the US these days. However, Full Tilt often makes it difficult and cumbersome for middle and high-limit players to get any kind of appreciable money on the site, forcing you to "work your way up" with small deposits over time. Most people -- especially fish -- don't have patience for this. They do make exceptions, but often you have to know the right people to make this happen.
Ease of Cashout - Grade: A-
Full Tilt is good at keeping on top of the payment processor fiasco in the US. When one goes down, they quickly jump to another. They don't tend to hassle players regarding where they got the money they're cashing out. For example, if your friend owes you $5k and sends it to you on Full Tilt, they will usually let you cash it out, provided you have a reasonable playing history there. This is different than Pokerstars, who over-scrutinizes every cashout and won't even let tournament stakers cash out their part of the winnings! It is impossible for cashouts to be perfect given the US government's aggressive shutting down of payment processors, so I can't fault Full Tilt for the occasional delay. Trusted players can make instant money transfers, too! The only reason for their A- grade comes from their attitude when cashouts fail. Pokerstars tends to "make it right" for the player and gives them something for their trouble. Full Tilt does not. Overall, Full Tilt does a very good job with cashouts.
Bot/Cheating Prevention - Grade: C
When it comes to catching and disciplining cheaters, Full Tilt is like the inconsistent parent who either lets their kids run wild or beats them for the slightest infraction, depending upon their mood. They have been known to abruptly close accounts and confiscate money from likely innocent people, due to flimsy-evidenced accusations. At the same time, up until last year, they were seen as a relatively safe place to run poker bots. Shanky Technologies, the brazen authors of popular poker bots, expressed surprise and dismay last year when Full Tilt abruptly closed down accounts using their bots. Shanky stated that their bots ran safely on Full Tilt for years, and it was strongly assumed that they were purposely looking the other way in order to collect the high volume rake that the bots generated. Props to Full Tilt for finally putting their foot down against bots, but it's inexcusable that it took so long. They are also known to play judge, jury, and executioner to people accused of cheating, even if the accusation is flimsy or weak. Their security department needs to get a lot more consistent, and they need to put more effort into nailing the truly guilty. With that said, the number of "false positive" account closures is very low, and is unlikely to affect you. However, even one account closure/confiscation is far too many.
Customer Service - Grade: C-
Full Tilt's customer service department is notoriously bad, which is especially shameful given their size. The one plus side of Full Tilt's customer service is the fact that their reps tend to speak good English, so you don't have to tear your hair out, trying to communicate in pidgin English. However, their support is notorious for being unreasonable, unresponsive, and answering questions with form letters that don't actually solve your problem. Full Tilt is not customer service oriented at all. If everything is running smoothly, you likely will never have an issue with them. However, if anything slightly out of the ordinary happens -- or you need assistance of any kind -- you better break out that valium, because you're gonna need it! Their support is only by e-mail, which makes it even more enraging to deal with them when your problem isn't getting solved.
Safety of Money - Grade: A-
The site is stable and won't be going anywhere. Cashouts are processed efficiently. The main danger on Full Tilt comes from within. A few players have had their money confiscated due to "false positive" rulings on cheating/botting accusations. For this reason, I would recommend that you cash out regularly when building up excess money that you won't need to play (a good idea anyway, due to the prevalence of hackers/keyloggers out there.) The only site I'd trust more with my money would be Pokerstars. In all other cases, Full Tilt is by far the most trustworthy.
Rakeback/VIP Program - Grade: B
Full Tilt does traditional rakeback. If you sign up directly through their site, you get none. (However, contact us at DonkDown if that's the case, and we might be able to add you into our affiliate program.) If you sign up through an affiliate, you supposedly get 27% rakeback. However, beware of the deductions! Full Tilt will subtract deposit fees, cashout fees, Full Tilt store fees, bonus fees, and freeroll fees from your rakeback! Therefore, it is best to trade money and deposit/withdraw elsewhere, if possible! The bright side to Full Tilt's rakeback is the fact that they do not require any volume of play to get it. Whether you play all day and all night, or if you just play for an hour each year, you'll still get the same 27%. This is very different from Pokerstars, which penalizes casual players heavily in the rakeback department. Full Tilt also has a "store" where you can redeem items based upon Frequent Player Points, but beware that they will subtract the retail value of the items you buy from your overall rake for the month. For example, if you raked $1000, you would be receiving $270 in rakeback. However, if you redeemed a shirt at the Full Tilt store, and they felt the shirt was worth $20, they would deduct $5.40 (27% of $20) from your rakeback, only paying you $264.60 for the month.
When Things Go Wrong - Grade: B-
Full Tilt gets credit for "redistributing" funds confiscated from cheaters. That is, they don't keep any of the money themselves, but rather distribute it to the victims proportionately. Unfortunately, Full Tilt can use some customer service lessons. When they make big mistakes or put people through major inconveniences, they generally don't compensate you with anything for your time and/or trouble. As mentioned earlier, they also have the "false positive" problem when it comes to security -- sometimes closing down innocent accounts. For the most part, it looks like Full Tilt tries to be fair, but sometimes they miss the mark.
Helpful Tips
Don't ever sit with a player waiting alone at a heads-up table. Chances are almost 100% that he's a pro and a heads-up specialist. Don't play freerolls, as Full Tilt will deduct its "cost" from your rakeback! Make sure to sign up to Full Tilt through our DonkDown affiliate link, or you might never get rakeback. Don't multi-account, even if you never sit at the same table. They have been known to close down accounts and confiscate money of people doing so.
Overall Conclusion
Full Tilt provides you the big-site playing experience. They're stable, but far from perfect. If easily beatable games are what you're looking for, this is not the right site for you. You'll want to try some smaller sites if that's what's most important to you. However, the software is good, the games are usually plentiful, and your money is generally safe. Full Tilt could take a few lessons from Pokerstars in customer service, as that's the biggest difference between the world's two largest sites.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Jasep
